There has been a lot of chatter about AppLovin in DTC communities. Intensify, an eCommerce advertising agency, decided to test the mobile ad platform for one of their clients.
Despite tough competition from larger companies like URX and Digital Turbine, AppLovin has quickly gained popularity and it’s stock has skyrocketed. Is it worth it? Here’s our in-depth AppLovin review.
What is AppLovin?
AppLovin is a mobile advertising platform allowing app developers to monetize and marketing teams to advertise. It drew in eCommerce advertisers when it started to tout it’s viability driving revenue as a direct response channel. It’s typical for ad networks to push brand awareness as opposed to actual, trackable return on ad spend (ROAS).
Where will my ads show?
Aside from showing impressions, conversions, revenue, and clicks by ad, the platform is fairly tight-lipped about where ads are displayed. BUT we have that data for you. Using an Shopify post-purchase survey app, Fairing, we found the mix to be:
Summary by Major Categories:
- Tile Matching Games: 18.65%
- Solitaire & Card Games: 17.60%
- Word & Letter Games: 17.60%
- Casual Puzzle Games: 13.13%
- Social Media & Communication Apps: 7.61%
- Casino & Slot Games: 6.37%
- Trivia & Quiz Games: 5.23%
- Strategy & Building Games: 4.57%
- Runner & Action Games: 3.90%
- Hidden Object Games: 2.95%
- Utility & Entertainment Apps: 2.19%
The biggest apps included:
- Solitaire: 5.23%
- Candy Crush Saga: 4.38%
- Wordscapes: 4.09%
- Royal Match: 3.33%
- Facebook: 2.57%
- Mahjong: 2.57%
- Spider Solitaire: 2.38%
- Candy Crush Soda Saga: 1.90%
- Instagram: 1.90%
- Scrabble GO: 1.90%
- Freecell: 1.81%
Why We Tried AppLovin
We wanted to test AppLovin for the following reasons: 1) to explore new growth opportunities, 2) to reach new audiences, and 3) to maximize revenue via increasing our return on ad spend (ROAS).
We utilize a high-spend Meta ad approach and our AppLovin trial is designed to evaluate the material benefits of the platform through meaningful performance analytics.
High Entry Requirements
The AppLovin platform is uniquely intended for large-scale businesses with high-spend marketing investments on Meta.
In order to advertise through AppLovin’s platform, you must be an eCommerce company doing over $10M in revenue annually. You’re also required to provide them with a screenshot of your account confirming your weekly ad spend.
It’s worth noting that they used to have a minimum Meta spend requirement of $20K per day or $140K per week, but this is no longer a requirement.
Setup & Launch Process
AppLovin suggests starting campaigns at $500 per day and then scaling up from there. It was pretty simple to get set up and launch our first campaigns. We were able to take our existing Meta creatives and drop them into AppLovin without trouble.
The platform does require you to make “End Cards” by creating an HTML file that appears at the end of each ad, which users can click on. Overall, the platform’s user interface is intuitive and setup was easy. For the End Cards, we suggest using your best performing static ad with a pulsing Add to Cart button.
Early Performance: Solid Start
The first few weeks yielded promising results.
We reached a consistent ROAS of 2x, allowing us to scale quickly and increase our daily ad spend to over $8K. Simply transferring our existing ads resulted in notable improvements in marketing performance with straightforward investments.
ROAS Drop & Optimization Issues
After 1 month, we saw ROAS start to decline and fall to 1.6 on one campaign and under 1 on another. At this point, we started to pull back on spend and considered whether AppLovin had long-term utility.
We continued to add more creative and more “End Cards” to see if we can improve ROAS. After 1.5 months of mediocre performance, performance started to improve and we’ve stabilized around a 1.8 ROAS, which is profitable for this client.
Even more impressive is that this is our ROAS based on 1st click across all channels. This means AppLovin is bringing brand new users into our ecosystem, which is extremely valuable for any brand. We’re verifying results using a Shopify third-party attribution software, Kendall.
Final Verdict: Should You Use AppLovin?
So, is AppLovin worth it? The platform shows promise, particularly for eCommerce growth marketing purposes.
It is the most promising ad platform since Meta & Google Ads. For brands with higher AOV’s than $50, it’s more promising than TikTok Ads (because TikTok ads can work well with low AOV products, not because AppLovin does not work for low AOV product).
If you qualify ($10M+ in annual revenue) and are spending a lot of money on Meta Ads ($5K+/day), we would definitely recommend testing advertising on AppLovin.
